Early Indo-European Texts

Hittite

Sara E. Kimball and Jonathan Slocum

This page contains a text in Hittite with a modern English translation.
This particular text and its translation are extracted from a lesson in the
Early Indo-European Online
series, where one may find detailed information about this text
(see the Table of Contents page for Hittite Online in
EIEOL),
and general information about the Hittite language and its speakers' culture.

Translation

O, Stormgod of Hatti, my Lord, and gods of Hatti, my Lords, Mursilis your servant has sent
me, (saying) go and speak to the Stormgod of Hatti and to the gods, My Lords, as follows:
"What is this that you have done? You have let loose the plague in the interior of the
land of Hatti. And the land of Hatti has been sorely, greatly oppressed by the plague.
Under my father (and) under my brother there was constant dying. And since I became priest
of the gods, there is now constant dying under me. Behold, it is twenty years since people
have been continually dying in the interior of Hatti. Will the plague never be eliminated
from the land of Hatti? I cannot overcome the worry from my heart; I cannot overcome the
anguish from my soul."

The second tablet concerned the town of Kurustamma--how the Stormgod of Hatti brought
the men of Kurustamma into the territory of Egypt (and) how the Stormgod of Hatti made
a treaty between them and the men of Hatti. And they were put under oath by the Stormgod
of Hatti and the men of Egypt were (bound) under oath by the Stormgod of Hatti. And the
men of Hatti got the upper hand and immediately the men of Hatti broke the oath (of the
treaty). My father sent infantry and chariot fighters and they attacked the border
territory at Amga. And, moreover, he sent (more troops); and again, they attacked. (The
tablet related) How the men of Egypt became afraid. They came, and they asked my father
outright for his son for kingship. And when they led him away, they killed him. And my
father became angry, and he went into Egyptian territory, and he attacked the infantry
and chariot fighters of Egypt.